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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

This post is mostly pictures, they're worth more than a thousand words right?! We ended our October holiday at Hong Kong Disneyland. It is a much smaller park than Florida, but it was the perfect size for our children. HK Disneyland is much like a scaled-back Magic Kingdom. I don't know if it's because we went the week after a national Chinese holiday or what, but it was not crowded and we were able to walk right up to rides and walk on. And, if the girls wanted to go on a ride again, it wasn't a problem. The longest wait we had was 20 minutes.

For anyone that has traveled to the Magic Kingdom recently, it takes hours of planning and researching to find the right restaurants & character meals and you have to book months in advance. You will find none of that in Hong Kong. There are two character meals to choose from and we walked up to every restaurant and sat down immediately.

We stayed on the grounds because HK Disneyland is on its own island and it is a bit separated from the rest of Hong Kong. We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, which reminded me of the Grand Floridian in Florida. This was probably the closest that I will ever get to staying at the Grand Floridian! The special touches for the girls were really neat. They had their own slippers with Mickey on them, bath robes, step stools to help reach the sink, plastic cups, etc.

The park was decorated for Halloween, which was fun for Jamie and I to see. For our tenderhearted children it provided opportunities to be brave and overcome some fears.

I felt as if the park was evenly split between adults and children. The subway stops outside the park and there were lots of teenagers and young adults going through the park. It seemed as if the adults were more interested in getting pictures taken with the characters and didn't spend as much time on the rides. The emphasis on the Disney Princesses was significantly less than in the US and it was nice!

LBean in the lobby of the Disneyland Hotel

EBean dancing and singing on the way to the
park entrance.

In front of the water fountain at the entrance

Love the Halloween decorations, the Mickey is made
of plants and pumpkins

Our first picture with Mickey & Minnie

"Main Street USA" leading up to Sleeping Beauty's Castle

Snack break with my rice krispie treat

Jamie and I in front of the Castle

Posing with Snow White

Peering down the well

LBean made a wish

Happy Halloween from the Club House gang

Grandma Callie got to ride the rides too

We loved the Dumbo ride

Jamie enjoying his Disney Dim Sum, yum, yum

A close-up of the Dim Sum

Jamie took this amazing photo of the Cinderella statue

Riding the carousel

Sitting on the carousel

Riding the tea cups

LBean watching the tea cup ride from the safety of her
non-moving tea cup

The Chinese doll in the Small World ride. We liked this
Small World ride better than the one in Florida.

This is the train, we faced into the park.

With the Minnie statue at our hotel

Mickey left LBean a new pair of sunglasses
on her pillow

Getting ready to have breakfast with Mickey and friends

LBean and Pluto

Love this picture, such a difference from the last time
we went to Disney in Florida

We see this face sometimes...the life of a 2 year-old is tough

EBean was really fascinated by Goofy

Look at those rockstar girls

Look at these rockstar ladies

This picture cracks me up because I'm leaning
over that funny way because I'm lifting up LBean
so she can get her face in the helmet.

Getting ready to drive her car

The train station all lit up for Halloween

Watching the spooky Halloween night parade.
Please note that LBean pretty-much looked like that
the whole parade. She loved the Headless Horseman, but
told me after the parade, "I never want to do that again."

The castle lit up.

The night-time fireworks.

Mmmm, Mickey waffles for breakfast.

Crafting in Prince Eric's playroom. It was a free program
at the hotel.